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Dublin Port Announces Pumphouse Art and Engagement Programme 2023 - ‘Connections: The Port, the City, Arts and Education’

3rd May 2023
Pictured at the launch of Dublin Port Art and Engagement programme 2023 were Peter Rothweil, Julie Crowe and Matthew Williamson performing a short piece from “Back home to a wonderful time” by ANU productions watched on by Lar Joye, Port Heritage Director, Edel Currie, Community Engagement Manager for Dublin Port, Barry O’Connell, CEO of Dublin Port and Declan McGonagle, Curator of the Pumphouse Programme. The theme for this year’s Dublin Port Art and Engagement programme is ‘Connections: The Port, the City, Arts and Education’. Dublin Port’s plans for the Heritage Zone at the Pumphouse include expanding its use for public exhibitions, events and performances creating a distinct and unique destination in the heart of the working port as part of port-city integration plans up to 2040
Pictured at the launch of Dublin Port Art and Engagement programme 2023 were Peter Rothweil, Julie Crowe and Matthew Williamson performing a short piece from “Back home to a wonderful time” by ANU productions watched on by Lar Joye, Port Heritage Director, Edel Currie, Community Engagement Manager for Dublin Port, Barry O’Connell, CEO of Dublin Port and Declan McGonagle, Curator of the Pumphouse Programme. The theme for this year’s Dublin Port Art and Engagement programme is ‘Connections: The Port, the City, Arts and Education’. Dublin Port’s plans for the Heritage Zone at the Pumphouse include expanding its use for public exhibitions, events and performances creating a distinct and unique destination in the heart of the working port as part of port-city integration plans up to 2040 Credit: Conor McCabe

Dublin Port Company, today, 3rd May 2023, announced details of its Art and Engagement programme 22/23 at the Pumphouse, Alexandra Road.

The Pumphouse formerly housed the steam engine which powered the gates of Graving Dock 1 but has been repurposed by Dublin Port into an artistic and cultural venue and is a key part of the Heritage Zone at Dublin Port.

The theme for this year’s Dublin Port Art and Engagement programme is ‘Connections: The Port, the City, Arts and Education’. Dublin Port’s plans for the Heritage Zone at the Pumphouse include expanding its use for public exhibitions, events and performances creating a distinct and unique destination in the heart of the working port as part of port-city integration plans up to 2040.

Pictured was a short piece from “Back home to a wonderful time” by ANU productions at The Pumphouse located on Alexandra Rd, Dublin Port as part of Dublin Port Art and Engagement programme 2023 announcement. The theme for this year’s Dublin Port Art and Engagement programme is ‘Connections: The Port, the City, Arts and Education’. DPictured is a short piece from “Back home to a wonderful time” by ANU productions at The Pumphouse located on Alexandra Rd, Dublin Port as part of Dublin Port Art and Engagement programme 2023 announcement. The theme for this year’s Dublin Port Art and Engagement programme is ‘Connections: The Port, the City, Arts and Education’ Photo: Conor McCabe

The Art and Engagement programme has been underway since mid-2022. It includes completed art and design outputs, such as large-scale projections incorporating live and still imagery as well as workshops led by experienced artists with pupils from St. Laurence O’Toole Primary School and second-level art students from Ringsend College.

Under a comprehensive programme of future work established artists and students, will participate in short residencies, and performances, including theatre and music - designed and customised for the Pumphouse context. These have been developed in partnership with theatre companies, ANU and Fishamble, as well as with Students from the National College of Art & Design (NCAD), UCD’s School of Architecture, the Design and Material Culture Course at NCAD as well the Sean O’Casey Community Centre’s Art Group and teenage members of the East Wall Youth Centre.

Julie Crowe and Matthew Williamson performing a short piece from “Back home to a wonderful time” by ANU productions at The Pumphouse located on Alexandra Rd, Dublin Port Julie Crowe and Matthew Williamson performing a short piece from “Back home to a wonderful time” by ANU productions at The Pumphouse located on Alexandra Rd, Dublin Port

Highlights of the current programme include:

Artworks by Transition Students from Ringsend College and ‘Works in Progress’ Prints and Photographs by 5th Year Students (April 2023). A study group of Transition Year students from Ringsend College are engaged in a new round of workshops with artist Janine Davidson using a range of art media to explore Port - City themes.

‘Mappings of East Wall’, by the Sean O’Casey Community Centre Art Group and artist, Silvia Leoffler (May 2023). These small scale and intimate mappings by members of the Sean O’Casey Centre’s mature art group amount to a creative portrait of the streets, homes and people who constitute the local neighbourhood of East Wall.

NCAD STUDIO+ Programme (May 2023). The Pumphouse is being regularly used as a situated studio space as part of the National College of Art & Design’s STUDIO + programme during which a series of micro-residencies for specific student groups take place.

Temporary Pleasure (Summer 2023) a large-scale architectural installation and event space in the Pumphouse Plaza, to offer new perspectives and appreciations of the work and life of Dublin Port.

States of Independence’ by Smashing Times, International Centre for Arts and Equality (October 2023). Celebrating the stories of ten changemakers from the Decade of Centenaries, and stories of ten changemakers today, told through performances, visual arts, creative billboards and online exhibitions.

The Pumphouse has been developing dynamic theatre and music projects for several years. Previous works at The Pumphouse included ‘Hidden Pianos’ (2018) developed by Artistic Director Máire Carroll with the aim of sharing classical and contemporary music in site-specific locations, ‘The Pumphouse Presents’ (2020), a Winter Festival of Plays commissioned by Dublin Port Company featuring work from Axis Ballymun, ANU productions and Fishamble: The New Play Company, and ‘The Book of Names’ (2021), a hugely ambitious co-production by ANU Productions and Landmark, that plots a singular path through one of the most secretive, contentious, and turbulent times in Irish history.

Barry O’Connell, CEO Dublin Port said, “The use of the Pumphouse is part of Dublin Port’s long-term strategy of connecting Port and City. The ‘Connections’ event reflects the ongoing Port/City Integration process and will see other large-scale heritage and arts projects being developed as areas of the Port are opened for public use. We are excited about this development in the overall context of port development and are committed to ensuring that the Port develops as a thriving community resource.”

Edel Currie, Community Engagement Manager for Dublin Port added, “It has been very positive, over the last few years, to see the theatre and music events, creative residencies and learning workshops develop at the Pumphouse. The engagement with the local schools and Colleges on these artistic works has been enormously positive. The wider appeal of these projects demonstrates the potential for the Pumphouse as a heritage zone in the city Centre. We look forward to the visual arts and performing arts events scheduled over the summer months and into the Autumn of 2023.”

Declan McGonagle, curator of the Pumphouse programme, said, “The Pumphouse is a distinct and unique setting where creative practice meets public experience in the context of a working Port and communities of place interact with communities of interest from further afield. The visualisations and signage tell the story of the Pumphouse its transformation and contempoary use. These visualisations of past and present activities are presented within the Pumphouse, using large scale, immersive projected imagery, a large scale white screen projection and monitors, along with photo-enlarged panels of workshops, participants and artworks. The works have been produced by different participating groups and include interviews with relevant Port staff, artists and academia, workshop members and past Port workers.”

At the Pumphouse Plaza, ANU productions will perform a short piece from “Back home to a wonderful time” on about the last troop ship leaving Berth 18 in December of 1922 starring Julie Crowe (The Stewart Of Christendom, The Gate, 2022), Peter Rothweil (Staging the Treaty, ANU Productions, 2022) and Matthew Williamson (The Book of Names, ANU and Landmark Productions, 2021).

Published in Dublin Port
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About Dublin Port 

Dublin Port is Ireland’s largest and busiest port with approximately 17,000 vessel movements per year. As well as being the country’s largest port, Dublin Port has the highest rate of growth and, in the seven years to 2019, total cargo volumes grew by 36.1%.

The vision of Dublin Port Company is to have the required capacity to service the needs of its customers and the wider economy safely, efficiently and sustainably. Dublin Port will integrate with the City by enhancing the natural and built environments. The Port is being developed in line with Masterplan 2040.

Dublin Port Company is currently investing about €277 million on its Alexandra Basin Redevelopment (ABR), which is due to be complete by 2021. The redevelopment will improve the port's capacity for large ships by deepening and lengthening 3km of its 7km of berths. The ABR is part of a €1bn capital programme up to 2028, which will also include initial work on the Dublin Port’s MP2 Project - a major capital development project proposal for works within the existing port lands in the northeastern part of the port.

Dublin Port has also recently secured planning approval for the development of the next phase of its inland port near Dublin Airport. The latest stage of the inland port will include a site with the capacity to store more than 2,000 shipping containers and infrastructures such as an ESB substation, an office building and gantry crane.

Dublin Port Company recently submitted a planning application for a €320 million project that aims to provide significant additional capacity at the facility within the port in order to cope with increases in trade up to 2040. The scheme will see a new roll-on/roll-off jetty built to handle ferries of up to 240 metres in length, as well as the redevelopment of an oil berth into a deep-water container berth.

Dublin Port FAQ

Dublin was little more than a monastic settlement until the Norse invasion in the 8th and 9th centuries when they selected the Liffey Estuary as their point of entry to the country as it provided relatively easy access to the central plains of Ireland. Trading with England and Europe followed which required port facilities, so the development of Dublin Port is inextricably linked to the development of Dublin City, so it is fair to say the origins of the Port go back over one thousand years. As a result, the modern organisation Dublin Port has a long and remarkable history, dating back over 300 years from 1707.

The original Port of Dublin was situated upriver, a few miles from its current location near the modern Civic Offices at Wood Quay and close to Christchurch Cathedral. The Port remained close to that area until the new Custom House opened in the 1790s. In medieval times Dublin shipped cattle hides to Britain and the continent, and the returning ships carried wine, pottery and other goods.

510 acres. The modern Dublin Port is located either side of the River Liffey, out to its mouth. On the north side of the river, the central part (205 hectares or 510 acres) of the Port lies at the end of East Wall and North Wall, from Alexandra Quay.

Dublin Port Company is a State-owned commercial company responsible for operating and developing Dublin Port.

Dublin Port Company is a self-financing, and profitable private limited company wholly-owned by the State, whose business is to manage Dublin Port, Ireland's premier Port. Established as a corporate entity in 1997, Dublin Port Company is responsible for the management, control, operation and development of the Port.

Captain William Bligh (of Mutiny of the Bounty fame) was a visitor to Dublin in 1800, and his visit to the capital had a lasting effect on the Port. Bligh's study of the currents in Dublin Bay provided the basis for the construction of the North Wall. This undertaking led to the growth of Bull Island to its present size.

Yes. Dublin Port is the largest freight and passenger port in Ireland. It handles almost 50% of all trade in the Republic of Ireland.

All cargo handling activities being carried out by private sector companies operating in intensely competitive markets within the Port. Dublin Port Company provides world-class facilities, services, accommodation and lands in the harbour for ships, goods and passengers.

Eamonn O'Reilly is the Dublin Port Chief Executive.

Capt. Michael McKenna is the Dublin Port Harbour Master

In 2019, 1,949,229 people came through the Port.

In 2019, there were 158 cruise liner visits.

In 2019, 9.4 million gross tonnes of exports were handled by Dublin Port.

In 2019, there were 7,898 ship arrivals.

In 2019, there was a gross tonnage of 38.1 million.

In 2019, there were 559,506 tourist vehicles.

There were 98,897 lorries in 2019

Boats can navigate the River Liffey into Dublin by using the navigational guidelines. Find the guidelines on this page here.

VHF channel 12. Commercial vessels using Dublin Port or Dun Laoghaire Port typically have a qualified pilot or certified master with proven local knowledge on board. They "listen out" on VHF channel 12 when in Dublin Port's jurisdiction.

A Dublin Bay webcam showing the south of the Bay at Dun Laoghaire and a distant view of Dublin Port Shipping is here
Dublin Port is creating a distributed museum on its lands in Dublin City.
 A Liffey Tolka Project cycle and pedestrian way is the key to link the elements of this distributed museum together.  The distributed museum starts at the Diving Bell and, over the course of 6.3km, will give Dubliners a real sense of the City, the Port and the Bay.  For visitors, it will be a unique eye-opening stroll and vista through and alongside one of Europe’s busiest ports:  Diving Bell along Sir John Rogerson’s Quay over the Samuel Beckett Bridge, past the Scherzer Bridge and down the North Wall Quay campshire to Berth 18 - 1.2 km.   Liffey Tolka Project - Tree-lined pedestrian and cycle route between the River Liffey and the Tolka Estuary - 1.4 km with a 300-metre spur along Alexandra Road to The Pumphouse (to be completed by Q1 2021) and another 200 metres to The Flour Mill.   Tolka Estuary Greenway - Construction of Phase 1 (1.9 km) starts in December 2020 and will be completed by Spring 2022.  Phase 2 (1.3 km) will be delivered within the following five years.  The Pumphouse is a heritage zone being created as part of the Alexandra Basin Redevelopment Project.  The first phase of 1.6 acres will be completed in early 2021 and will include historical port equipment and buildings and a large open space for exhibitions and performances.  It will be expanded in a subsequent phase to incorporate the Victorian Graving Dock No. 1 which will be excavated and revealed. 
 The largest component of the distributed museum will be The Flour Mill.  This involves the redevelopment of the former Odlums Flour Mill on Alexandra Road based on a masterplan completed by Grafton Architects to provide a mix of port operational uses, a National Maritime Archive, two 300 seat performance venues, working and studio spaces for artists and exhibition spaces.   The Flour Mill will be developed in stages over the remaining twenty years of Masterplan 2040 alongside major port infrastructure projects.

Source: Dublin Port Company ©Afloat 2020.